Colors

 I stand at the intersection,

Of two busy streets.

As I wait for the signal to change,

I see you walk past unhurriedly.

Gently smiling.

And when you are long gone by,

I feel a difference.

I feel a little bit of you in me.

Like the parched earth,

I seem to take you in.

Then I realize, it’s not just you

But you, you, you and you,

All of you, a little in me.

Myriad hues,

Colors that you all cast on me.

Your shadows now belong to me,

If only a little bit.

Your doubts and fear and pain,

As also your joy, hopes and dreams.

I reflect your colors about me.

Some of you take me by the hand,

We fly to a faraway place,

Walk by green pastures,

Smell the flowers by the wayside.

But you have to leave too.

I wonder if there is anything of me,

You take with as you leave?

What is this color I pass on?

Is it my own?

Or is it of someone long gone by?

A color bestowed

At a different point in time?

In this exchange of colors,

There isn’t any that’s just mine,

When there is no me.